Monthly Archives: November 2013

Saturday Movie Matinee: Obama’s Push To Politicize The Holidays

by

4

Byron York appeared on Fox news on Friday to talk about the Regime’s creepy attempt to politicize the holidays.

See also:

The Conversation: The Creepy Precedent Behind Democrats’ Push to Politicize Thanksgiving:

The president and his allies have asked supporters of ObamaCare to push the unpopular law on their relatives, this Thanksgiving – even to the point of supplying them with strategies and talking points.

But that’s not all – Mayor Bloomberg’s anti-gun group, Mayors Against Illegal Guns wants families to spend their time around the Thanksgiving table talking about gun control, and they’ve provided a handy-dandy placemat, “Talking Turkey About Guns” to help get the conversation started.

Not to be outdone, Planned Parenthood recommends that supporters discuss “reproductive health” at the Thanksgiving table. “Talking Turkey: 8 Easy Steps for Discussing Reproductive Health and Justice at the Holiday Table.”

You won’t find any conservative organizations pushing a political agenda, this Thanksgiving – the very idea is repugnant to most right leaning folks. Politicizing holidays is a uniquely left-wing impulse which has a troubling history in Communist East Germany, as Byron York reminds us in a post at The Washington Examiner, today.

Byron York: Why is President Obama trying to politicize the holidays?

During a recent stay in Berlin, I visited the old headquarters of the East German Ministry of State Security, better known as the Stasi. The building, in a suitably bleak part of what used to be East Berlin, is now a museum devoted to the communist surveillance state. The upper floors display some of the tools of that surveillance — miniature cameras, listening devices, files on everything — that the German Democratic Republic used to control every aspect of its citizens’ lives.

But the first floor of the Stasi Museum is not about spying. Instead, it is devoted to the propaganda that East German bureaucrats used to foster socialist consciousness in an unwilling public. One display explains the GDR’s efforts in the 1950s to politicize what in the past had been family and religious occasions. The state sought to transform weddings, confirmations, and other personal events into “socialist celebrations,” to be “committed collectively and aimed at a confession to socialism,” according to the awkward English translation of the exhibit.

The exhibition informs visitors that the project “did not gain popular acceptance.” Amazingly enough, people didn’t want to turn their family holidays into socialist celebrations.

Sultan Knish: The Obama who Stole Thanksgiving:

If you were hoping to eat your turkey in peace; forget about it. Michelle Obama not only wants to control your menu; she also wants to control the topic of your family dinner conversation by exhorting your more impressionable relatives to sell you on her husband’s substandard ObamaCare junk plans.

The “Health Care for the Holidays” page on BarackObama.com, promoted by his wife, urges his remaining devoted followers to “pledge” to push ObamaCare on family members and advises “integrating the talk into family time”.

Because there’s nothing that says “family time” like teaching people to hijack family dinners to become used health care salesmen; BarackObama.com offers sales tips like “Make it memorable”, “Be Persistent, but keep it positive” and “Find a quiet place”. That last tip will prevent other family members from hearing their screams of horror at the size of their new ObamaCare premiums and deductibles.

These aren’t tips for talking to family members; but for scamming them out of money. They’re the sort of crude sales techniques that MLM affiliates get in the mail. Be positive, be persistent and eventually you’ll sucker some poor idiot into an ObamaCare plan with a bigger deductible than the national debt.

Twitchy: Thanks, Obama! Here’s what happened when Obamacare came up at Thanksgiving dinners:

Did OFA-approved Obamacare talking points put in an appearance at your Thanksgiving dinner? How ’bout Al Sharpton’s “turkey tips” or the DNC’s “cool” O-care propaganda?

For some families, Obamacare at the holiday table was a recipe for disaster. New Thanksgiving tradition: Screaming arguments.

Thanks, Obama.

Twitchy: ‘Obamacare is GR8!’ Touré describes how Thanksgiving dinner got agreeably ‘wonky’:

For many American families, the subject of Obamacare being brought up at Thanksgiving dinner was a recipe for disaster. But according to MSNBC’s Touré, there were no arguments about Obamacare at his Thanksgiving table, which is apparently the very definition of “wonky.”

Twitchy: Ouch! Actor Allen Covert has a warning for Obamacare Thanksgiving preachers

Twitchy: Gut-busting! Best idea of what to share with family about Obamacare on Thanksgiving

Twitchy: O-Bam! Iowahawk has some advice for Obamacare evangelists on Thanksgiving

Miller Time Weighs In On Obama Obamacare Iran & Turkey Dinner – O’Reilly

Krauthammer: Obama abusing his power with ObamaCare ‘fixes’:

Charles Krauthammer: The real problem in politics today isn’t lack of civility but the breakdown of political norms and the outbreak of lawlessness.

ReasonTV: If You Like Your Plan You Can Keep It: The Rap (w/ Remy):

Remy takes questions from the White House press corps.

PJ Media: Elizabeth Warren for President? Will a First-Term, Blue State Senator Upset Hillary…Again?:

The New Republic says Hillary Clinton should be afraid of Elizabeth Warren in the upcoming Democratic primaries. Will the Massachusetts Senator ruin Hillary Clinton’s chances in 2016? Will the Democratic Party run on the ‘war on women’ meme successfully?

C. Steven Tucker on Obamacare for AFP Indiana 93.1 WIBC and Chicks On The Right:

All of Barack Obama’s Obamacare lies outlined in 25 minutes.

 

The Political Commentator: PSA Video: Knockout ‘Game’ Self-Defense:

In this Special Edition Gracie Breakdown, Rener Gracie and Eve Torres share some critical self-defense principles everyone should know in order to defend against the growing trend of vicious unprovoked assaults by cowardly teenagers. Obviously, harsher punishment would reduce the frequency of these deadly assaults, but until that happens, everyone must learn how to break the “Triangle of Victimization” in order to reduce the risk of being targeted. Please share this video with all your friends and loved ones, together we may very well save a life.

Some good tips, here. Well worth your time.

The Council Has Spoken!! This Weeks’ Watcher’s Council Results

by

0

romandicegame

Alea iacta est…the Council has spoken, the votes have been cast, and we have the results for this week’s Watcher’s Council match up.

I got the impression that here was a man who could be relied upon when he had given his word – Neville Chamberlain on Adolf Hitler, 1938

I spoke personally with President Rouhani of Iran earlier this fall. Secretary Kerry has met multiple times with Iran’s Foreign Minister..Today, that diplomacy opened up a new path toward a world that is more secure. – Barack Obama announcing his new agreement with Iran, 11/23/13

If he being young and unskillful seeks to gamble for silver and gold; Take his money my son, praising Allah, the fool was made to be sold! – Hafez, Persian poet, Divān, 1365 (est)

joshuapundit

This week’s winner, Joshuapundit’s Israel, Obama And Iran – When The Rubber Meets The Road is my reaction to President Obama’s announcement of a deal with Iran on their illegal nuclear program…which we now learn, according to the Iranians, isn’t a deal yet at all in spite of what the president and Secretary Kerry had to say. Like ObamaCare, the president apparently lied to knowingly to the American people once again, and the more we find out about this the worst it becomes, even worse than when I wrote this. Here’s a slice:

By now the full details of the West’s capitulation in Geneva has become known. And what the West agreed to was staggering.

Former UN Ambassador John Bolton, someone who knows a great deal about nuclear proliferation and about Iran called it an abject surrender.He’s entirely correct.

As I pointed out earlier, the new agreement de facto recognizes Iran’s right to enrich uranium, something that is going to have huge implications as other countries who signed the Nuclear Nonproliferation Treaty are going to claim the same right themselves. And like Iran, they are going to refuse to sign the additional protocols of the NPT, which allow for snap inspections.

The United States and other Western nations have never conceded a ‘right’ to enrich uranium, for the every simple reason that it is perfectly possible to have a nuclear energy program that also allows for medical uses without it. Canada, for example, is one nation among many that uses nuclear energy without enrichment. Enrichment is only vital if the desired result is the ability to eventually manufacture nuclear weapons.

That’s also why there were numerous UN resolutions calling specifically for Iran to cease enrichment and allow inspections, and why the sanctions were implemented in the first place, after years of attempts at ‘diplomacy’.

That’s all been thrown by the wayside now. It took years to even implement any sanctions. Thanks to President Obama and his willing helpers at Geneva, that’s not going to happen again, even if Iran is caught violating this new agreement.India, China and South Korea among other countries want additional imports of Iranian oil, and EU countries want to open up the floodgates to trading with the Ayatollahs.The sanctions are history. And Iran knows this very well.

Among other things, this legitimizes an evil, fascist regime that brutalizes its own people and is probably the biggest financier and enabler of Islamic terrorism in the world. And the West is disgracefully aiding and abetting the regime, not only by giving them a clear path to achieve nuclear weapons but by giving them blood money in the amount of $7 billion and probably much more in frozen assets in the bargain.

Aside from this, the other loopholes in the new agreement are extraordinary.

While Secretary Kerry preens and bloviates about verification, the IAEA inspections have already been delayed for three months by agreement with Iran in exchange for absolutely nothing on Teheran’s part. In that time period, the Iranians can move, hide and conceal pretty much anything, as well as strengthening their facilities against attack.

And while the agreement calls for IAEA inspections at Fordow and Natanz, these facilities are pretty much under satellite surveillance anyway. The Iranian military base at Parchin where weapons test are suspected to have occurred is not part of the agreement, nor is Iran required to reveal any secret nuclear facilities they may have or allow them to be inspected. The IAEA has received quite a bit of information from Iranian dissidents about possible secret nuclear sites, but there is no followup or right for the IAEA to conduct on site investigations in the new agreement.

Also, just as there is absolutely nothing in the new agreement stopping the Iranians from continuing to enrich uranium, there’s nothing stopping them from developing and improving their ballistic missiles, warhead technology or other nuclear related weaponization like nuclear triggers.

Abject surrender pretty much covers it. And the fact that the almost frenzied efforts to make any kind of deal were very likely done to take the spotlight off of the dismal failure of ObamaCare and the president’s rapidly falling approval ratings makes it even more craven.

A lot more at the link.

In our non-Council Category, the winner was former UN ambassador and nuclear proliferation expert John Bolton’s piece in the Weekly Standard, Abject Surrender by the United States submitted by The Political Commentator. If reading it doesn’t get you seriously concerned about who’s leading this country and what they’re doing….do read it.

Ok then, here are this week’s results. Only Simply Jews was unable to vote this week,but was not subject to the usual 2/3 vote penalty.

Council Winners

Sixth place *t* with 2/3 vote –

Non-Council Winners

See you next week! Don’t forget to tune in on Monday AM for this week’s Watcher’s Forum, as the Council and their invited special guests take apart one of the provocative issues of the day with short takes and weigh in…don’t you dare miss it. And don’t forget to like us on Facebook and follow us onTwitter…..’cause we’re cool like that!

The IRS Continues to Punish Obama’s Enemies (Video)

by

29

It’s been a little over  half a year since the IRS scandal blew wide open in Washington DC, and an “outraged” Obama vowed to get to the bottom of it.  But IRS officials who were involved, have not been held accountable, instead, they’ve been given generous bonuses and promotions. Rather than get to the bottom of it, the DOJ hasn’t even contacted any of the 41 conservative groups represented in the American Center for Law and Justice (ACLJ) lawsuit against the IRS.

The Obama administration has actually  ramped up its attacks on conservative groups and audits of people who criticize Obama on the news.

barack-finger-pointing

On Tuesday, the Regime moved to rein in the use of tax-exempt groups for political campaigning.

The effort is an attempt to reduce the role of such loosely regulated yet influential super PACS as Crossroads GPS, which was co-founded by GOP political strategist Karl Rove, and Priorities USA, which ran searing ads against rivals of President Barack Obama to support his re-election last year.

The Internal Revenue Service and the Treasury Department proposed new rules that they said would prohibit such groups from using “candidate-related political activity” like running advertisements, registering voters or distributing campaign literature as activities that qualify them to be tax-exempt “social welfare” organizations.

Jay Sekulow, of the The American Center for Law and Justice (ACLJ), appeared on the Kelly File to discuss the move on Wednesday. The ACLJ is representing 41 organizations in a federal lawsuit challenging the IRS and he says the new regulations proposed by the IRS aimed at tax-exempt organizations is “changing the rules… while the game is still in play.”

“These proposed new regulations put the First Amendment rights of Americans at even greater risk,” said Sekulow. “This is a feeble attempt by the Obama Administration to justify its own wrong-doing with the IRS targeting of conservative and Tea Party groups. Instead of holding those responsible for the unlawful targeting scheme accountable for their actions, the Obama Administration is determined to further limit the free speech of Americans by attempting to change constitutional practices that are decades old. With this move, the Obama Administration opens a new front in its war against political dissent. We will file comments with the IRS opposing these new regulations.”

“The IRS is now engaging in a post-hoc justification for their illegal conduct”, Sekulow told Megyn Kelly.

“There’s something else that’s sinister, here”, Sekulow continued. “The idea that this is going on in the middle of this litigation that we’ve got in which the IRS is being represented by the Treasury Dept, and the DOJ, and outside law firms and they’re changing the rules in the middle of this. Our clients applications are still pending after three years and you know what they deem to be an appropriate activity, here? Voter registration! Which is something the NAACP has done for decades so successfully.”

“So they can shut down your client’s applications that have been delayed in some cases for three years based on this new rule if it’s approved?” Kelly asked.

“Sure,” Sekulow answered, “What they’re going to do is say they’ve got new standards now…”

“It makes it a lot easier to win if you changed the rules of the game!” Kelly concluded.

A hand written letter Obama sent to a conservative school teacher in Texas is making news.

ObamaRitterLetter

Thomas J. Ritter was surprised to get a response from Obama on official White House ­stationery, after he wrote to the president ­expressing his dismay over the Affordable Health Care Act.

Ritter had written: “I hesitated to write for fear of some kind of retribution . . . I watched you make fun of tea baggers and your press secretary make fun of Ms. [Sarah] Palin which was especially beneath the dignity of the White House . . . Do the right thing not the political thing. Suggest a bill that Americans can support.”

In response, Obama said,  (1.) “I . . . appreciate your concern about the toxic political environment right now. I do have to challenge you, though, on the notion that any citizen that disagrees with me has been ‘targeted and ridiculed’ (2.) or that I have ‘made fun’ of tea baggers . . . (3.) [I] defend strongly the right of everyone to speak their mind —  ­including those who call me ‘socialist’ or worse.

1. The tea party has been targeted by the IRS and others. It has also been roundly ridiculed by members of the left-wing media, and some people in his administration.

2.He himself has used the derisive, disgusting  term, “teabaggers” in the past and in the present – as evidenced by his casual use of it in the letter!

3. Obama doesn’t defend his political enemies. He punishes them. As C. Steven Tucker and Bill Elliot discovered, this week.

Remember Bill Elliot, the cancer patient who lost his insurance due to ObamaCare and couldn’t pay the expensive new premiums? I posted the video of his interview with Megyn Kelly, here.

Elliot felt his new options were so expensive he was giving up – he would just pay the fine and  “let nature take its course.”

C. Steven Tucker, a health insurance broker who helped him keep his insurance, appeared on some radio talk shows to talk about his case, and others like it.

Daniel Greefield of FrontPage Magazine explains what happened, next.

Now suddenly Bill Elliot is being audited for 2009 with an interview only scheduled in April 2014. Assuming he lives that long. That might be a coincidence, but Tucker is being audited back to 2003.

That’s a rather strange coincidence.

Would the IRS actually go after a cancer patient, who had voted for Obama initially, just for appearing on FOX and now being sharply critical of Obama and suggesting that he resign for his health plan lie?

Under the current insane state of affairs, where the IRS was used to silence the opposition, it’s unfortunately entirely possible. The fact that we are even having this discussion shows how badly Obama has undermined confidence in government institutions and the rule of law.

That’s the he Obama way.

Rewarding friends: Yep: Unions get their exemption from ObamaCare’s reinsurance fee

Punishing enemies: Obamacare will hit small businesses with higher rates, lower benefits, says major insurance broker

I don’t know what else to say, but #IMPEACH and #REPEAL

Linked by Doug Ross, thanks!

Video: CIA Warned The State Dept About Deteriorating Security Situation In Benghazi – So Why No Precautions For 9/11?

by

3

KT McFarland appeared on Fox News’ America’s Newsroom with Alisyn Camerota to discuss the latest revelations about Benghazi – specifically why was security so inadequate?

New information that came out of the closed door hearing this week, is that the CIA knew that security had deteriorated in Libya, and that 9/11 would be a flash-point for violence.

Asked why the State Department didn’t take the proper precautions after it was alerted, McFarland answered, “Well that’s the big question because now we realize that our intelligence was actually pretty good.” Someone ignored the warnings.” She added, “there is a paper-trail.”

Camerota asked McFarland why the security officers around the compound in Benghazi were not armed and she reiterated the dominant theory —  that it fit in with Obama’s reelection theme: “I got bin Laden, al Qaeda’s on the ropes, al Qaeda’s on its heels, al Qaeda’s finished. The fact that the intelligence community was warning, “no there’s a real problem in Eastern Libya – there’s a real problem in Benghazi – watch out. It’s like the administration just didn’t want to hear it.”

No. They didn’t want to hear it. There are interesting theories as to why. I don’t buy the “it didn’t conform with Obama’s reelection narrative” excuse, at all.

Some day, this century, maybe Congress will get to the bottom of it.

Kathleen Troia “KT” McFarland  served as the Deputy Assistant Secretary of Defense for Public Affairs under President Ronald Reagan from 1982 to 1985.

Another theory as to why the key members of Regime didn’t hear the warnings – they weren’t around to hear them.

Let’s face it. A week doesn’t go by that Obama isn’t on the road campaigning, fundraising, or golfing.

And Hillary? She set the world’s record for the most traveled US Sec. of State.

Considering the June attack on the consulate, the August emergency meeting, and over 200 terror-related incidents in Libya since strongman Muammar Qaddafi was ousted, the U.S. embassy in Tripoli repeatedly requested additional security from State Dept. headquarters in Washington.

So what did then-Secretary Hillary Clinton and staff do?

While staff turned down multiple media requests, she got out of town.  Literally.

She packed her backs and traveled the world, visiting 112 countries, the most ever by any Secretary of State, and according to State Dept. records, logged nearly 1 million miles.

When she returned to work in early January 2013 after a month-long series of illnesses, including a reported concussion, her staff proudly presented her with a football helmet and blue jersey with 112 emblazoned on the back.

Yet perhaps Ms. Clinton’s penchant for globetrotting contributed to disaster in Benghazi?

After all, in the three months between terrorist attacks on the Benghazi consulate, Ms. Clinton visited 31 countries on 7 different trips.  These trips included destinations like diplomatic, economic and military heavyweights Mongolia, South Sudan, Benin, Laos, Vietnam, Latvia, Timor Leste, Senegal, Cambodia, Ghana, Uganda… and 20 other countries.

On August 30, just 12 days before the U.S. Consulate was overrun in a coordinated terrorist attack and four Americans were murdered, Clinton was in Rarotonga, a South Pacific island between New Zealand and Hawaii, population 13,000.  Judging by the festive, tropical welcome party pics, it looks like it was a fun time.

No wonder the secretary didn’t have time to read all those pesky diplomatic cables she whined about during Congressional testimony on Benghazi in January 2013.

Perhaps in Ms. Clinton’s boundless ambition to be America’s best Secretary of State ever, maybe she was actually the worst.  It’s not rocket science.

Instead of doing her basic job, including “must dos” like responding to imminent security threats to U.S. diplomatic posts in dangerous places like Benghazi, she was doing the “nice to dos” like visiting Rarotonga.

Rep. Frank Wolf has introduced measure, H. Res. 36, “to establish a House Select Committee on Benghazi, presently has 178 cosponsors and has been endorsed by The American Legion, the Federal Law Enforcement Officers Association, the editorial page of The Wall Street Journal, respected national security leaders, like former Attorney General Mukasey as well as some of the family members of the Benghazi victims.  The poll mention above also found that 62 percent of voters say it’s important for Congress to create a special committee to get the truth about Benghazi.”

In the NY Times, Tuesday, Obama dead-ender Paul Krugman  smugly called the fraudulent and grossly incompetent ObamaCare trainwreck, an over-hyped, “Benghazi-type affair where Republicans are screaming about a scandal nobody else cares about.”

Knowing full well that the media controls how much the public cares about an issue by how (and if) they choose to report on it – as we’ve seen with all of Obama’s scandals, counting but not limited to, Fast and Furious, the IRS,  DOJ spying, and NSA scandals.

Fewer and fewer Obama sycophants are willing to swallow their pride and  completely beclown themselves for their master, like Krugman. The truth will come out. And when it does, the lap dogs who covered up for the Regime will look like the craven, partisan hacks they are. Oh, they’ll still have well paying jobs in the Democratic media complex. But their influence and credibility will have taken another major hit. This crap can’t go on forever…..

CATO Health Policy Expert: ‘Halperin Was Right The First Time’ – Politifact ‘Completely Wrong’ on IPAB aka ‘Death Panels’ (Video)

by

2

Michael Cannon of Cato Institute’s Health Policy Studies appeared on the Kelly File to discuss the Independent Payment Advisory Board (IPAB) aka  “Death Panels”.

Cannon explained that the point of the IPAB was to “reduce  Medicare spending  by lowering the prices Medicare pays to doctors and hospitals….and supporters of the law acknowledge this….the power to set price is the power to ration.”

And the IPAB, he argued, “can even go beyond that. I can, despite a prohibition on rationing that’s in the statute, it can tell seniors, ‘you’re not going to get specific treatments'” because “the prohibition against rationing is absolutely unenforceable – it is toothless. The IPAB can do whatever it wants and it’s going to take 60 votes in the Senate to override and block what the IPAB does.”

Although he called the term “death panel” inflammatory, Cannon said, the rationing is baked into the cake as Halperin said. “It’s part of Obama’s plan, and he’s not been honest with the American people about it.”

As for Halperin’s recent waffling on the issue, Cannon said, “he wants to sell books to Democrats and he wants to sell books to Republicans, and so he doesn’t want to alienate either side, and I understand that….but he had it right the first time…”

He went on to slam Politifact for calling Sarah Palin’s Death Panels comment, “the lie of the year,” as I recently noted, here. “Politifact didn’t know what they were talking about! Politifact got that completely wrong – fact checkers get things wrong all the time! But what they have been able to do is shame people – like Halperin – out of having a rational discussion about these issues…”